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Alterman’s Gambit Guide: English Defense Gambit - Part 1

Opening: A30: English Defense

Player(s):

The English Defense (with 1 d4 e6 2 c4 b6) came into being during the height of the so-called "English Chess Explosion" of the late 1970s and through the 1980s, when it was championed successfully at elite level by top English grandmasters such as Tony Miles, Ray Keene, Jon Speelman and Nigel Short. While this hypermodern defense is as quintessentially English as fish and chips and high tea, that didn't stop it becoming universally played and pioneered in other countries - especially as it is full of dynamics for the player of the Black pieces with so many inventive ways to play it. And in this series of GM Boris Alterman's Gambit Guide, our resident guru of all things gambits looks at one such line being the English Defense gambit with 1 c4 b6 2 d4 e6 3 e4 Bb7 4 Nc3 Bb4 5 f3 f5 6 ef Nh6!?